Well money or success alone isn’t enough to make a bright person happy by itself. You can buy any-and-every thing and it won’t get you closer to feeling like you have a purpose or to give you the idea that anything you do really matters, for any meaningful amount of time. Success is s little different, depending on your definition or whatever. Success just for success is probably meaningless. But if your “success” involves doing truly good and noble things, or genuinely helping people and feeling their appreciation, then I would say that version of “success” should get you starting to feel better about yourself. But everything is subjective. A great day for me could be an average day for you, or vise versa. I hate to say it, but I think the sooner people come to the realization that we are pretty insignificant; that we could work ourselves to death for 50 years and not be remembered 5 years after we die; that things don’t necessarily have to mean anything, but that the better we treat others and the happier they are, the better they treat us and the happier we will be — and the flip side, that lying, cheating, stealing, and hurting others has a profound effect on how we see ourselves and subconsciously or otherwise, we end up disliking ourselves which often makes us nasty to be around and is like a self-reinforcing cycle of misery. Also, striving to be better, so you can be happier and make others happier, is a valid and worthwhile endeavor, even if we aren’t rewarded for it by some bearded man on a cloud.
